David Horrix explains key reasons why he thinks some women (and juniors) are deterred from playing snooker.

Click on the topic that interests you to follow it. We will keep you updated with the news you shouldn’t miss.

Snooker

Click to watch the video

Video of the Day: Blasting News

Top coach David Horrix believes qualified coaches can play a pivotal role in helping to turn around some failing UK Snooker clubs.

Horrix, a WPBSA level two coach, believes that it's "old-fashioned" mindsets holding some clubs back, and damaging progress in getting more juniors and women into the game to play.

His views come as another UK Ladies Championship starts this month at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, with Dudley's Reanne Evans leading the way in the ladies game from the UK.

But Horrix believes it is attitudes in some smaller snooker clubs across the country from male members, which is deterring more UK ladies from taking up the sport.

Stricter rules needed

He said in another email Q&A: "Bad language, offensive jokes, and racism are rarely if ever challenged. Members know other members, and bad behaviour is often ignored on the basis that the person behaving that way is "OK really."

The coach from the Menstone Club west Yorkshire believes there should be more female representation on Club Committees and that there should be stricter rules in place for bad behaviour, including three key ones:

1) No swearing on the premises

2) No racist language

3) No sexist behaviour.

Catch 22

He also believes that coaches can provide a valuable role in enforcing these strict guidelines when on site on club premises.

The problem Horrix believes is that people who often are behaving badly in clubs are generally members - and he adds: "It's a Catch 22 situation" - because these are the people who are spending the money in the club.

He believes that if this type of behaviour is tolerated and ignored by some committees, then inevitably it will lead to the demise of the club as there is no turn in profit. Horrix says change in behaviours is possible, but "not easy" in the current climate.

He adds: "Behaviours that are unacceptable in the public world, should also be unacceptable in private clubs."

The coach also believes that coaches should be brave enough to confront committees who are ignoring this type of behaviour, and offer a clear and attractive vision to help the club attract new players, particularly juniors and women with organised coaching programs based on their experience and skills.

He said he has found some clubs are receptive to the idea of change if there is a clear enough vision from the coach.

The image seen by outsiders in "old-fashioned" snooker clubs across the UK is that of a male base who drink lots at the bar and generally indulge in what some people there might call " light banter."

But Horrix points out any woman, or, indeed, family who enter into the club would not want to stay there - particularly to play snooker.

This area provides transparent information about Blasting News, our editorial processes and how we strive for creating trustworthy news. Moreover, it fulfills our commitment to The Trust Project - News with Integrity (Blasting News is not a member of the programme, but has requested to be a part of it - TTP has not conducted a compliance review yet).

We and our partners use technologies, such as cookies, and process personal data, such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers, to personalise ads and content based on your interests, measure the performance of ads and content, and derive insights about the audiences who saw ads and content. For further details, please read our cookie policy. Click on the 'Accept' button to allow these uses or on 'Edit' to get more details and/or reject all or part of them. You can change your mind at any time and change your choices by clicking on 'Edit Consents' at the bottom of the page. If you continue browsing by accessing another area of the site or selecting, for example, an image or a link, you express your consent to the use of cookies and other profiling technologies used by the site.